There are few people that can extract all of the nuances of female rage and bottle them into a text, Rose Wilding is one of them. Her debut ‘Speak of the Devil’ explores the thrilling mystery of 7 women and a mysterious decapitated man, all under the stormy cloud of the patriarchy. Speaking at The Biscuit Factory, Wilding expressed that her own motive for writing the novel stemmed from a frustrating interaction with a male classmate of hers, and after realising that men speaking over women is a tired narrative, decided to turn her emotion into words. Inspired by the likes of powerful writers such as Carol Ann Duffy, Wilding’s words both on the page and off, are a testament to her commitment to give women and queer people a voice in the fiction world, and it was very pleasing to know there is even a character based on the city of Newcastle.

Imogen Mole